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The Mad Monster
| runtime = 77 min | country = United States | awards = | language = English | budget = }} The Mad Monster is an American horror film produced and distributed in 1942 by "Poverty Row" studio Producers Releasing Corporation, directed by Sam Newfield, written by Fred Myton, and starring George Zucco, Glenn Strange, Johnny Downs and Anne Nagel. The plot involves a mad scientist who has been discredited by his peers. He attempts to kill them off after he develops a secret formula that transforms his gardener into a murderous wolfman. Plot The story begins on a fog-bound moonlight night in a swamp; a wolf howls. The scene shifts to the nearby laboratory of Dr. Lorenzo Cameron (George Zucco), who draws blood from a caged wolf. Secured to a table is Dr. Cameron's simpleminded but strong gardener, Petro (Glenn Strange), who is to be the doctor's subject in an experiment. Cameron injects a serum made from a wolf's blood into the cooperative Petro, who loses consciousness, grows fur and fangs and awakens after he has turned into a wolfman. Cameron then turns to an empty table and visualizes his former colleagues sitting there—four professors who ridiculed his theory that transfusions of wolf blood could be used to give a human being wolf-like traits. He recalls how the scientific community, the press and the public joined in a resounding chorus of ridicule, which cost him his position at the university. Addressing the spectral professors, Cameron declares, "Right now, we're at war. At war with an enemy that produces a horde that strikes with a ferocious fanaticism". Cameron proposes giving wolfman traits to the army to help with the war. When the professors scoff, Cameron says that his proposal doesn't really matter; he is now going to have his wolfman kill his former colleagues. He then administers an antidote to Petro that transforms him back into a human; Petro remembers nothing. The following night, Cameron turns Petro into a wolf and sends him to the swamp. Before the night is over Petro has entered a nearby home and killed a little girl. When Cameron hears of the child's fate, he knows his formula works. He turns to his real priority, which is destroying the scientists who ruined his career. The rest of the film involves Cameron setting up elaborate scenarios in which Petro is alone with each scientist when he becomes a wolf. However, the more he does this, the more Petro's transformations into a wolfman become unpredictable. Cameron's daughter Lenora (Anne Nagel) is romantically involved with Tom Gregory (Johnny Downs), a newspaper reporter who is investigating the death of the little girl. As the professors are killed off one by one, Gregory begins to suspect that Cameron is behind the slayings. The principals are in the Cameron home when a thunderstorm begins and a bolt of lightning sets Cameron's laboratory on fire. Lenora and Tom escape from the house after encountering Petro in wolf form. Petro turns on Cameron and kills him, just before the fire brings the house down on both of them. Cast Starring: *George Zucco as Dr. Lorenzo Cameron *Glenn Strange as Petro *Anne Nagel as Lenora Cameron *Johnny Downs as Tom Gregory With: *Gordon De Main as Prof. Fitzgerald *Reginald Barlow as Prof. Warwick *Robert Strange as Prof. Blaine *John Elliott as Prof. Hatfield *Sarah Padden as Grandmother *Ed Cassidy as Father *Mae Busch as Susan *Henry Hall as Community Doctor *Slim Whitaker as Officer Dugan *Gil Patric as Detective Lieutenant Production Filming started March 19, 1942 and took five days. Reception The film was re-released by PRC in 1945 on a double bill with The Devil Bat.Two Chillers Screened G K. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) Angeles, Calif 15 Dec 1945: A5. According to British film historian Phil Hardy, the film "shocked the British censor enough to ban it until 1952, and even then to insist that it should be accompanied by a disclaimer on the matter of blood transfusions." Author Tom Weaver described the basic story as "a combination of The Wolf Man and PRC's own The Devil Bat with Zucco subbing for Lugosi as the wacky doctor... one of those uniquely bad films that is difficult to dislike."Tom Weaver, Poverty Row Horrors p 82 See also * List of films in the public domain in the United States References *''The Mad Monster'' DVD *Rovin, Jeff (1989). The Encyclopedia of Monsters. New York: Facts on File. *Skal, David J. (2001). The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror. New York: Faber and Faber, revised edition. External links * * * [http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-madmonster.html The Mad Monster Review] Mystery Science Theater 3000 * * Episode guide: 103- The Mad Monster (with short: Radar Men from the Moon, episode 2: Molten Terror) Category:1940s horror films Category:1942 films Category:American films Category:American black-and-white films Category:English-language films Category:Mad scientist films Category:American monster movies Category:Producers Releasing Corporation films Category:1940s science fiction films Category:Werewolves in film Category:Films directed by Sam Newfield Category:American science fiction horror films Category:Films about revenge